The ‘Get on Board’ Competency Pathway

Research shows there is a lack of young trustees, and "a need to engage young people now by creating opportunities and a supportive culture around board governance, to help shape and nurture a talent pipeline.""We need to create governance opportunities in a supportive environment and work towards changing mindsets and attitudes and ensuring that giving a seat on the board to a young person is a potential option. This is why Edinburgh Napier University created the Get on Board Competency Pathway in conjunction with RSM and Santander Universities (the ‘Charity Board Initiative’) to transfer a model to other Scottish Universities. The first stage is to encourage students to learn about the third sector, understand the role and duties of trustees and experience the positive benefits of “giving back” via a trustee role (leading to a bronze award certificate). We further support personalised pathways to a range of training and networking opportunities offered by a range of organisations, such as Anderson Strathern, Santander, SCVO, RSM, Volunteer Edinburgh etc. (leading to the silver award) prior to allowing the students to seek and fulfil a board position, leading to the achievement of the gold award. This model can be transferred and scaled to other cities, by developing the eco-system to support the availability of free training and networking opportunities, that has been demonstrated as being abundant in Edinburgh.